The regally styled room was pin-drop silent as five figures looked on at an uncommon sight in the middle of its backwall. Bar that, this was no different from an ordinary royal chamber. Tapestries telling ancient stories decorated the walls. In a niche where the wall was devoid of the art, a portrait of three well-dressed figures occupied it. A well-built, large man but with delicate facial features, shoulder length light-brown hair covering his scalp stood at the right. His bright green eyes were apparent as he smiled with closed lips. In his arms was a very young girl, perhaps no older than two or three years looking in the direction of the painter, obviously hidden from the frame. To the father and daughter’s immediate left was a seated individual, but not much could be seen of this person beside that she was obviously a woman. A rectangular sheet of paper was plastered over the upper part of her body, obscuring a section of the painting. It was done hastily and lazily, like someone took the first object they saw to conceal the woman’s appearance the moment they were able to.
Four formally dressed young people stood quite a distance from the object they had been brought into the king’s chamber to see as a woman in a dress stood next to it.
“How much do you want it?” the military woman asked the four youths in a commanding voice. “How much do you want to buy back your freedom?”
“More than anything, Ma’am!” they chanted in unison.
“What will you put on the line to see to it that His Majesty is restored?”
“Our lives!” they shouted together.
A Terran taken away from Earth, a Terran raised in the mines, a half-breed, and a Titanian raised in the Martian Territory, the instructor, who bore the badge of a colonel on the shoulder of her dress thought. An odd selection presented to me by Major General Salomon, but there’s nothing I can’t drill into their heads.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Step forward.” the instructor ordered, and the four youths promptly followed. The Pod bolted into the floor that formerly housed the Emperor’s bed was right before them. An orange, oval-shaped dome sat atop a white metal base, sealed together by methane gas which clouded up the interior of the Pod. With the press of a button, the gas slowly cleared up via an internal ventilation system. They saw the man they had been brought to see. He lay still, his perfect body shielded with only a towel wrapped around his waist.
“His Majesty has been comatose in this chamber for a decade, and he will not be this way for a year longer! The closer he gets his freedom back, the closer you are to getting yours. it doesn’t seem like you lot have much in common with him, but you both value your personal freedoms. Tell me, what do you want for yourselves and our Emperor?”
“Freedom!” three of the students chanted. The fourth student remained mum, even though he had followed his fellows previously. This was not the vision of freedom he had. Why did he have to train to help save the invader’s king? But then again, he couldn’t question the decision. It was the only outcome where he could certainly return home alive.
“Speak up,” an elbow bumped into his ribs. The boy saw a half-Titanian, half-human girl about his age but at least a head taller in his periphery. “Don’t get us in trouble again, Joakim.”
“Louder.” the instructor cried.
“Freedom!” they repeated, Joakim reluctantly among them.
Images flashed in his head as he and his peers listened to their instructor ramble on about the importance of their mission. He remembered the images they were shown of the boy they were supposed to acquire, his name, and the strength he possessed. He knew exactly who he had seen, something that he didn’t share with his peers. He knew his younger brother more than anyone, and if reuniting with him would also result in him returning home, then he would see to the end of the mission at all costs. The monarch of the oppressing forces did not concern him at all, but getting the chance to hold Stefan in his arms again made it all worth it. He would save the enemy if it meant he got to see his only living relative again.